AAPT chief is NBN positive

The incoming chief executive of business telecommunications provider AAPT, David Yuile, says he plans to take a more positive public stance on the national broadband network than his predecessor Paul Broad, and that the company has signed on to use the NBN as part of an aggregated service for its customers.

Mr Yuile officially takes on the CEO role of the Telecom New Zealand-owned subsidiary today, after Mr Broad left to become CEO of government advisory body Infrastructure NSW.

He told The Australian Financial Review that, despite Mr Broad being a vocal sceptic regarding the value of building a national fibre to the home broadband network, the company had, in reality, been working closely with NBN Co for the past six months.

“There are going to be many access networks in Australia, we already use our own, Telstra’s, Optus’ and we are already accredited with NBN having been through their laboratories and certified," Mr Yuile said.

“My perspective is that the NBN is a reality, the legislation is in place and we will work with the NBN and progressively add them to our network coverage as they roll out."

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The move to add the NBN to its aggregated services means that AAPT customers will have their voice, data and internet services hosted on the NBN, where AAPT’s own fibre network is not available.

Mr Yuile said his company would favour using the NBN over those of Telstra and Optus.

Under his stewardship, Mr Yuile said AAPT would be looking to tap into a new range of retail service providers (RSPs), in order to provide them wholesale telco services.

In other parts of the world, major supermarket chains such as Tesco have begun selling retail internet services.

Mr Yuile said new RSPs were likely to be amenable to buying from AAPT, as it was no longer a competitor for customers after selling its consumer business to iiNet last July.

“I don’t know if it will be supermarkets or very different companies, but the reality is that the market is going to open up, we will see a large number of retailers that never used to exist and we will be a very attractive proposition for them," he said.

Ahead of Telstra’s recent $11 billion deal with NBN Co, Mr Broad had been a signatory on a letter to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy expressing deep concerns that Telstra’s historic dominance would continue under the NBN.

Mr Yuile said that, while he was pleased an agreement had been struck, he had been left disappointed by a lack of clarity around how the Minister’s guide to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would make Telstra give fair and equivalent access to its copper network during the 10-year ­transition to the NBN.

“We think the most important thing for the industry is a level playing field and that is all we ask for, and we still think it is somewhat tilted," Mr Yuile said.

“We felt that Telstra should be made to pay the same price as other retailers to the wholesale organisation, but that is clearly not sorted. But that won’t be the end of it, there will be other opportunities."

Late last year AAPT embarked on a cost-cutting drive, shedding 100 staff after the iiNet sale and moving to a new billing platform after ending a contract for IT support with HP Enterprise Services.

Mr Yuile said the company had invested $40 million into the business in the last year and that the organisation was now at the right size and cost structure.

Despite almost constant speculation, he said there were no active plans for Telecom NZ to sell AAPT.

“There has always been so much speculation, which is just the nature of the beast," he said. “There is a lot of consolidation right now, and it is always very flattering to be considered an attractive asset, but the reality is that we are focused on growing the business and making it achieve the things we know it can."